by Staff

The new imprint at IDW called Black Crown, or alternately The Black Crown Pub, and on some deep and symbolic level, the two are interchangeable (and note that pub as in public house could also be read ‘pub’ as in abbreviation for publisher), held the first of its newly announced pop up “happy hour” events on Friday, April 7th at 4pm PST online. Editor Shelly Bond promises more forthcoming if you check this web location at the right time on Fridays.

These “happy hours” which are a virtual hang out at the pub in question will be set times for small or large revelations about books coming from the imprint and the ways in which those books fit together the geographical overlap suggested by the virtual pub, which will appear in all the line’s comics. The imprint’s first title, Kid Lobotomy, announced at WonderCon as written by Peter Milligan and drawn by Tess Fowler, was the subject of the first “happy hour”.

We learned that the hotel which Kid Lobotomy runs in various strange, gothic, and potentially disturbing ways, is called “The Suites” and is located “on the upper right hand side of the street behind the Black Crown pub”.

This art was also revealed, positioning the pub geographically within the streets where storefronts will be associated with different books in the line. Which isn’t totally out of keeping with Comicon.com’s own wacky theory that this connects with the experience in the pub at the end of the Hellblazer comic series in some way.

We also got a special cocktail, tailored to the title:

But that wasn’t all. We did, indeed, get a character reveal and some concept artwork to open up the world of Kid Lobotomy further for readers. This is “Rosebud, Kid Lobotomy’s big sister”:

This is interesting for a number of reasons. At the announcement panel, Fowler mentioned there would be “a mysterious female character whose the “Boba Fett” of the series”, but this may not be her. Either way, we know from descriptions that Kid Lobotomy has been unhappy, and given a hotel to run, and that he’s a bit crazy. Perhaps Rosebud is a more balancing influence? Or we could be gruesomely wrong in that assumption. This is a horror comic, after all.

Shelly Bond has also put up some funny notes and a page of script, urging herself not to let Milligan “go off the rails” like “last time”, teasing that this comic is extreme Milligan.

Should we analyze the page a little? Sure, why not.

We see that Kid is being taken into a mental hospital, that Bond feels Milligan is doing a good job showing contradiction between what we’re told and what’s being shown in the panels, that Kid is woefully locked away for some time, and then eventually gotten out of the “cuckoo’s nest” by his father.

We’re seeing the beginning of a mythology here–Kid’s mythology of his looming, powerful father, of his own incarceration, and a glance toward the future, perhaps? Oh, and don’t forget the potentially creepy new friend/imaginary friend he seems to pick up in the hospital… That could be very interesting whether corporeal or imagined.